1

"You know that they'll come for you eventually, right?" My adopted father and mentor looked at me with a grin, but I didn't find it amusing at all. "I don't think this is something to joke about."

"I'm not joking, dad," I replied with a casual shrug. "I'm just thinking about you being all tough for the guys." When I said "guys," it didn't really fit because they were grown men—big, full-grown men.

He grumbled and shifted the papers on his sturdy oak desk. The London skyline served as a backdrop, with twinkling lights all around. He let out a deep sigh, his shoulders tensing up. Anxiety etched his face as he ran a hand through his long black hair.

"I'm not threatening you for them. They said it... I just felt I should forward the message."

"Alright!" I raised a palm in mock surrender and said, "Message received, loud and clear."

He frowned. "But you still won't come home?"

My throat squeezed at his tone. "You know I can't."

"It's dangerous for you to be out there alone."

"Nothing is more dangerous than being at home."

"At least at home, there's someone to protect you."

"If I will always need a protector, what do I need all this tech for?" I knew that my eyes were glowing now, and my system flickered to life inside me. "I should just get it removed and call Viber Tech now, ready to hand over all my designs."

"Hey!" He shouted, "Don't you dare do that. Don't you dare let that animal take what you worked so hard to do. And damn you for threatening to do that."

"That's what has happened anyway, dad." Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes, and my voice broke. Frustration gripped me, and I promised myself I wouldn't cry. "I'm just trying to make this right."

"By disappearing? Leaving the six behind?" Another sigh left him, his hand fisted until his knuckles turned white. "Leaving me? I'm your father, and I don't even know where you are right now."

Well, that wasn't technically true. Garett Jones wasn't really my father, though he was the one to raise me. My parents met their untimely end twelve years ago at the hands of the father of the man who now runs Viber Technologies.

I was too young and too weak to save them. That's what drove me to do what I had to do. That's why this whole situation was going to shit... is shit.

"Just know I'm safe." I tried. He looked so withdrawn, pale, and exhausted. "Have you been sleeping?"

"No." He mumbled, "How can I? You're gallivanting across the globe with no protection."

"I'm not gallivanting... I'm more... traipsing." I laughed.

"This isn't funny!"

Immediately, I sobbed up. Garett was right. This was no laughing matter. Real people were after me—dangerous people—which is why I had the six in the first place, but the dream was perverted.

"I'm sorry, Garett." His wandering gaze latched onto mine again. "This isn't a joke, and I don't consider it to be. I need to do this. You have to understand."

"I don't understand, Rose." He tapped his fingers on the desk, staring pensively out in front of him. "But there's nothing I can do about it."

"There, that's the spirit!"

"That doesn't mean I'll stop the six."

My throat struggled to swallow. "They won't find me either; please tell them to stop looking."

He smiled then, exposing his crooked white teeth. His beard was thicker and untrimmed, and his eyes were red. The worry was getting to him, but this was something I had to do.

"It doesn't matter what I say."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't. Men like that. Men who feel like that."

Suddenly embarrassed, I squirmed in my seat. "Men who feel like what?"

"Men who are desperately in love like they are will move heaven and earth for what they want."

I scoffed. "They aren't in love with me."

"Don't lie to me." He chastised sharply. "I thought it was just Finch, but all of them? They're possessed, obsessed with finding you."

"They won't. I'll be fine."

"You should call them."

"And have they threatened me face-to-face? Don't think so. It's not needed. You'll tell them I'm fine, and they'll let it go."

He didn't look convinced. "If you say so. I just want you safe and sound."

"I am, dad." My eyes drifted to the clock. "I've gotta go."

"I know." His sad tone tugged at my heartstrings. "Same time next week?"

Nodding, I forced another grin. "Same time next week."

The screen went black. Garett was gone. He was on the other side of the world, tucked into his neat office, and here I was, rampaging across the United States on fumes.

I hadn't wanted to spend time talking about them. The last nine months had been literal hell. Every cell inside of me was screaming to go back home and let them have me again.

That was why I left in the first place. The need to be with them—the need to let them catch me—nope! I shot up in my seat, dumped the burner phone on the passenger side, and drove to the nearest phone recycling bin, fighting off the desire to relive my heated nights in bed with them.

I chucked it inside and drove off, hitting the highway to make the five-hour drive back to Thungston Canyon. The sleepy community housed over 80,000 people. It was just off the main highway, easy to get into, and even easier to leave.

My fingers tapped the stereo to the whining beat of Aloe Blacc as I drove under the scorching sun. A lead weight settled at the centre of my chest as my thoughts turned again. It had been nine months since my disappearance, and I was still no closer to correcting the glitch in coding.

The technology underneath my skin was functioning, barely, and still very much tied to the Six. Even though they could read a lot of my body functions, my location was elusive and constantly pinged far out of the way. It took hours of studious work to create the complicated network used to house it.

I could feel them too. They were deranged, horny, and tittering on the edge of oblivion with me gone, and that was the issue. All my work had fallen under a code glitch.

Each and every single one of them was suffering from the same feelings. They had to have me. They had to touch me, kiss me, fuck me, and love me.

With just Finch feeling this way, I was drowning, and now, six? I could barely breathe. They never let me out of their sight, and rarely did I have more than five hours of sleep a night. It was six cocks down my throat before breakfast and at least two up my throat before I went to work.

I was cornered leaving the lab, trapped in the shower, fucked in limos, and fingered at movie theatres. There wasn't a moment of peace, and I was tired of it. I had to find a way to fix the code, or I'd

My brain ground to a halt. There is no or for me. I had to find a cure, and with my current alias starting at Thungston Canyon High School tomorrow, I didn't have a moment to lose.